Back in February 2011, Daimler introduced the brand ‘BharatBenz’ for the Indian market. The company invested Rs 4,400 crore for a factory in Oragadam near Chennai from where it would offer commercial vehicles from 6 to 49 tonnes under the BharatBenz brand. Now, the company has revealed its range of trucks for India.
BharatBenz will introduce 3 trucks by the third quarter of 2012. In the next 20 months, the company has aggressive plans to launch 17 models. As promised earlier, the range of product would start from 6 tons and will go right up to 49 tonnes. BharatBenz has also tied up with HDFC Bank, ICICI bank and Sundaram Finance for truck financing.
The The 160-hectare facility will start production in April. The plant will start with an initial capacity of 36,000 units per year. It will be later ramped up to 70,000 units depending on the requirements. The current range of trucks have attained 85 per cent localization with 41 per cent coming from within a 50 kilometer radius and 44 per cent from the rest of the country.
BharatBenz trucks will be sold and serviced over a network of 70 dealerships. This will be extended to more than 100 dealerships by 2014.
[Source: BSMotoring.com]
